InstallDebianFromIsoShort
Category:Debian (the page InstallDebianFromIso got overdetailled over time, here is the original) Short Goal : install a working Debian sarge/etch image from scratch, with a rather easy to use installer. * Get a businesscard ISO for etch : http://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/ * Get a businesscard ISO (35 Mb) for sarge / testing * Get a ISO (186 Mb) for woody / stable (NOTE: These instructions were done with sarge on 6 Oct 2004, but should work for any Linux ISO. Installed for Etch on 21 Sept 2007 using debian-40r1-i386-businesscard.iso with some modifications as noted below.) Using daemon tools (http://www.daemon-tools.cc) to mount the image or an archiver program (http://www.tugzip.com) to extract files get initrd.gz out of \install on the CD. Extract initrd from initrd.gz and place it in a directory with your filesystems. (NOTE: The file may be in \boot or another dir if you're using a different distro, but will still be named initrd.gz) Start with a configuration similar to this (this assumes root.fs is a blank ext3 formatted filesystem file): root=/dev/cobd3 Boot colinux normally and wait for the installer to load. Choose to manually find CD. Choose "None" for CD ROM driver, then choose "/dev/cobd/2" for path. This should get you up to "No partitionable media is found". Press Alt+F2, then Enter. mkdir /target mount /dev/cobd/0 /target cd /target (this will "lock" this directory as mounted no matter what the partition step tries to do) Press Alt+F1, choose to continue install anyway. (50 Mb will be downloaded) Installing kernel then errors out, choose continue anyway. (choose a 2.6 something, related to your CPU of course) Don't install LILO or GRUB, choose finalize installation. There will be a few errors, choose continue anyway. Start a shell, edit /target/etc/fstab with nano and change it as so: /dev/cobd0 / ext3 defaults 1 1 /dev/cobd1 none swap sw 0 0 then make some coLinux block devices : cd /target/dev mknod cobd0 b 117 0 mknod cobd1 b 117 1 mknod cobd2 b 117 2 mknod cobd3 b 117 3 and reboot. Change your configuration to boot from cobd0 like so: root=/dev/cobd0 Boot, login as root, apt-get update apt-get install module-init-tools reboot (just for good measure) Should be at a fully working (yet minimal) debian install! don't forget to adjust your network configuration (like /etc/resolv.conf) and run apt-get clean to get rid of about 50 Mb you just downloaded. ---- History * originally written by <SKroWL> (very nice job), later updated with link to woody and edited for clarity. * checked and validated by <Gniarf>, using snapshot 0622 and this Debian Sarge installer : http://cdimage.debian.org/pub/cdimage-testing/daily/i386/20041006/sarge-i386-businesscard.iso Further notes * <Gniarf> The section is not strictly necessary, I didn't had one. * <Gniarf> if you can't make the network work, I guess you can use the sarge-i386-netinst.iso instead. not tried yet. * <OscarUsifer> For Etch, you'll need to remove the /dev/mem, /dev/kmem and /dev/core, then recreate the nodes with device node 1:3 (same as /dev/null) using the same mknod command mentioned earlier at the install step as noted above in virtual console 1 (vc1). You can observe the install progress in vc3 & vc4. ----MassTranslated on Sun Apr 23 17:36:20 UTC 2006